Interview: Shareholder Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth

10 July 2015

Khun Sumrith speaks on pre-season tour

Khun Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth owns 25% of Reading Football Club, and during the Club's pre-season tour of Thailand he spoke with the BBC about his involvement with the club, plans for the future and much more besides.

What brought you to Reading?
I personally love football very much and we had a chance with my Thai consortium, with Narin and with Lady Sasima - we studied a couple of teams but we found Reading very interesting. And we saw it had a good future with the Academy, the under-21s success, winning the Premier League cup in 2014 - when we do things like this we look at the future of the club. We see a lot of good potential from a lot of the kids in the Academy.

Your aims to develop the club?
We are looking at ways to develop Reading Football Club, how to make it better in terms of players, in terms of financial, in terms of management. We are really concentrating on the new season, on new players, how to bring players through the Academy and into the first team, that is what we're concentrating on right now.

Asked about real estate and plans to develop...
That is not our main purpose at all. We came to Reading because of the football, so we think that any team we want to invest in, we only concentrate on football. Other stuff is not our main purpose. We will talk about it, but that is not a concrete plan as yet.

What are your businesses that have got you to where you are today?
One of my businesses is in garments, manufacturing, exporter to a lot of global brands in the world, like Adidas, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, New Balance etc. Another of my businesses is in real estate, we build flats, houses etc.

What are your ambitions for next season, and working with Steve Clarke?
That is our goal, that is what we're targeting, Premier League. Steve Clarke has come up with a lot of ideas. We are all going the same way. We have high hopes. We'll try to bring the team to the Premier League.

Investment in the squad?
We've got to bring in what is wanted at the club because we are aiming at the Premier League next season. We work very closely with Steve Clarke. Can we expect more players? Of course. Right now we're still discussing, talking on some more players.

How does that transfer process work?
We have a team to monitor players and we work very close with Steve. Not all the time, but we sit down together, we do video conferences, a lot of ideas.

Are you enjoying being part of the football club?
We're really enjoying it. We are Reading. We really love Reading now. We are planning to be there for the first home game, which is very important for us.